Jazz Ensemble hosts the Equinox Invitational

March 20, 2010 - 8:00pm
  • Saturday, March 20, 2010
  • Old Cabell Hall
  • 8:00pm
  • $10 general/$5 students (free for UVa students if reserved in advance)

 

On Saturday, March 20th, in Old Cabell Hall Auditorium the UVA Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of trumpeter John D’earth, will present its annual winter concert on the first day of spring hosting an EQUINOX INVITATIONAL featuring an array of student vocalists and special guests. The Jazz Ensemble will be performing some brand new arrangements like The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, with a big band setting of John Coltrane’s original solo, and the jazz/funk extravaganza Get a Grip! by Tom Scott. Exciting arrangements of American songbook classics like Mean to Me, sung by Adrianna Foster, Every Time We Say Goodbye, with Ginny Burke, and a searing arrangement of It’s You Or No One, featuring Emily Voreas, will dominate the night. As a very special addition to the proceedings D’earth has invited the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra’s principal trumpeter, Paul Neebe, to perform the Duke Ellington classic, Boy Meets Horn. Mr. Neebe will also be featured with Early Music professor and counter-tenor Paul Walker in a new setting, by D’earth, of a 15th century Spanish song to the Virgin Mary. The concert will end with a salsa/swing treatment of Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing, sung by Matt Savarese and Gracie Terzian and joined by all the vocalists, plus mystery guests, for a rousing, collectively improvised vocal finish.

“We have a killer band right now,” says D’earth, “with strong lead players in each section. The guest vocalists are also very strong. I’ve wanted to do this kind of vocal concert for years and now, thanks to jazz vocal instructor Stephanie Nakasian and the small jazz combo program taught by Mike Rosensky, Pete Spaar, and Jeff Decker, which has welcomed a number of student vocalists, we now have the singers to do it.”

As the Jazz Ensemble springs forward with their Equinox Invitational they are also looking forward to their May 1st concert featuring two internationally acclaimed guest artists: composer/pianist Kirk Nurock and jazz/world music vocalist Miles Griffith. Miles and Kirk will lead the Jazz Ensemble and all the UVA jazz students and teachers into deeper vocal territory. “We hope to create a jazz choir for this concert,” says D’earth. “We all need to sing. The twin pillars of musicianship, which comprises one’s personal musical skills, are rhythm and vocalizing and this year we are definitely raising our voices in song!”

On the very day that winter turns into spring the UVA Jazz Ensemble will be singing and swinging in celebration of love, life, and the inevitable rhythms of change, with a salute to the vocal arts.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and free for UVA students who reserve their ticket in advance. Tickets are available through the Arts Box Office www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu 434.924.3376.

 

 

$10 / $5 for students / free for UVA students who reserve their ticket in advance.
www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu
434.924.3376.

Address

UVA Department of Music
112 Old Cabell Hall
P.O. Box 400176 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4176

Email: music@virginia.edu